Our speakers

Rajiv Mehta, MD, PUMA South Asia

A foodie at heart, an engineer by profession and a retailer by passion – meet Rajiv Mehta, the young and multi-faceted Managing Director of PUMA South Asia. A chemical engineer from ICT in Mumbai, Rajiv then completed his MS at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked for three years at BOC in New Jersey where he was responsible for driving research, design and development, before the academic bug hit once more – resulting in an MBA from the prestigious INSEAD University in Singapore. Upon graduating, Rajiv was identified by the global SportLifestyle brand PUMA to head their Indian operations at the young age of 27.

Today, after 7 years at the helm, Rajiv’s contribution is recognized as instrumental in establishing PUMA as the creative leader of SportLifestyle in the country. With a singular vision to aesthetically blend sport, fashion and lifestyle, Rajiv is credited with the transformation of PUMA from being a new entrant to becoming the 2nd largest sports brand in India. He strategically spearheaded the marketing and distribution of PUMA in India with the establishment of the first retail store in Chennai in 2006. Today, PUMA has a brand presence across more than 60 cities in India with a retail presence of over 200 stores. Under his stellar leadership, the company in India has grown to a 180 people strong team operating out of 4 offices and headquartered in Bangalore.

Rajiv has played a pivotal role in spreading the brand ethos of fun and joy. This is strongly reflected in the young and vibrant work culture at PUMA India wherein the ‘PUMA Way” of doing things with a generous measure of cool quotient is the norm. Rajiv is an adventure sports enthusiast and is a P2 level certified pilot for paragliding. Water sports, particularly white water rafting, bungee jumping and skydiving are amongst his adventure sports passions.

Rajiv Prakash, Advisor, Digital Businesses, Future Group

Rajiv has twenty years experience spanning retail, technology, outsourcing, investment banking and business consulting and has established successful ventures in these areas. He is presently an adviser to the Future Group (India’s largest retailer) on their digital businesses. In his previous assignment, he headed Future Group’s Digital Commerce business which includes futurebazaar.com and the digital retail arms of Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and eZone. The mandate for this business is to democratise shopping via digital channels and deliver 10% of the Group’s retail revenue. Rajiv was earlier the co-founder of Future Knowledge Services (FKS), Future Group's specialised retail business and technology solutions venture.

Prior to Future Group, he has worked at Cisco, KPMG, Andersen and Bank of America in consulting, strategic planning and investment banking roles  and also co-founded a merchant banking start-up. He is a commerce graduate from the Bombay University and a MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Rajiv also works closely with start-ups as a mentor/adviser. These include ventures in food services, location based  marketing services, solar lighting and distribution, multi-lingual technologies, ecommerce platforms and digital marketing services.

Rajiv Sabharwal, MD & CEO, TATA Capital

Rajiv, a B. Tech from IIT Delhi and PGDM from IIM Lucknow, has over 26 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry. Rajiv is currently the Managing Director & CEO of Tata Capital Limited. He is also the Chairman of Tata Capital Financial Services Limited, Tata Capital Housing Finance Limited and Tata Securities Limited and is also on the Board of Tata Cleantech Capital Limited, Tata Capital Pte Ltd. and Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited.

He has served as an Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank where he was responsible for several businesses including retail banking, business banking, rural banking, financial inclusion, technology and digital banking.  He has also served as the Chairman of ICICI Home Finance Company Limited and was on the Board of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited. He was also on the Investment Advisory Committee (Real Estate) of ICICI Prudential AMC.

Rajiv has been widely acknowledged and credited for his contribution to the growth of the Retail Banking and Real Estate & Housing Finance market in India.

He also has experience in both Venture Capital and Growth Capital investing, through stints at both Sequoia Capital and True North. He has also been on the Board of a number of early stage and growing companies in the Financial services space.

He has also served on a number of RBI and IBA committees.

Rajiv has also had successful stints with the Godrej Group, SRF Finance, GE Capital and Times Bank.

Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank

Mr. Rajiv Sabharwal is the Executive Director on the board of ICICI Bank. He is responsible for Retail Banking, Business Banking, Rural Banking & Financial Inclusion Business. He is also a director on the board of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited and the Non-executive Chairman of ICICI Home Finance Company Limited.

Mr. Sabharwal has done his Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and MBA from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow.

He has over 22 years of experience in the Banking/Financial Services industry. He joined ICICI Group in 1998 and has held leadership positions in credit policy, debt management, business analytics, mortgage finance, consumer loans, credit cards, rural and microfinance lending and financial inclusion. His contribution in the growth of mortgage and retail business is widely acknowledged in the industry circles and within ICICI Group. He also has considerable knowledge relating to the securities and portfolio management business segments as he has been on the investment advisory committee of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company's Real Estate PMS since 2007.

Prior to joining ICICI Group Mr. Sabharwal has worked in the Consumer Durables Marketing, Commercial Finance and Retail Finance businesses at Godrej, SRF Finance and GE Capital respectively. In January 2009 he joined Sequoia Capital, a leading venture/growth capital company and worked as Operating Partner focusing on the financial services sector. There he led new investment decisions as well as represented Sequoia at the board in existing investments.

He then rejoined ICICI Bank Limited from April 2010.

Rajiv Sahney, MD, New Vernon Private Equity Ltd

Mr. Rajiv Sahney is the Managing Director of New Vernon Capital LLC and is responsible for its Indian operations. Mr. Sahney is the Managing Partner of New Vernon Advisory Services(N V Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd). He serves as a Consultant at Bain and Company. Mr. Sahney co-founded Medusind Solutions India Pvt Ltd., and serves as the Chairman there. He also served as MD of Antfactory.

 

He serves on the Boards of Sahney Kirkwood Pvt. Ltd., Sahney Commutators Pvt. Ltd., Isovolta (I) Pvt. Ltd., Kanwaldeep Investments Co. Pvt. Ltd., NV Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., Varroc Engineering Pvt. Ltd. and B. Seenaiah Co. (Projects) Ltd. He served as a Director of BSCPLInfrastructure Ltd.  He served as a Non-Executive Independent Director of Allcargo Global Logistics Limited from August 21, 2006 to August 14, 2010.

 

Mr. Sahney received an MBA from IMEDE (Lausanne, Switzerland) and a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology.

Rajiv Saxena, Head- Mergers & Acquisitions, Essar Group | @Essar

Rajiv joined Essar in September 2005, as Head of M&A. At Essar, he led the acquisition of Algoma Steel, Canada and Minnesota Steel, USA. Prior to joining Essar, Rajiv was an investment banker with Lazard, the international investment bank, for 12 years. At Lazard he was involved in advising leading global companies in the transportation/logistics, petrochemicals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electricals and consumer goods sectors.

Rajiv started his working career in the financial services industry in 1984 and has a total work experience of 24 years. He is an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines and a Commerce & Law Graduate from Bombay University.

Rajiv Sharma, CEO, Sterling Hospitals

Rajiv is the CEO of Sterling Addlife India Limited that owns and manages largest chain of corporate hospitals in Gujarat under the brand name of Sterling Hospitals. Under his leadership, from a single hospital in Ahmedabad, Sterling hospitals has emerged to be the largest and dominant chain of corporate hospitals in Gujarat with 6 operational Hospitals in major cities in Gujarat with more than 1000 beds under management.

 

He has a career spanning 18 years across various functions ranging from Sales & Marketing to Consulting and M&A. He has a diverse work experience in industries such as Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables and in Healthcare in Indian and international markets. Rajiv is a member of healthcare committee of FICCI - Gujarat.

 

Rajiv is a B.E.(Mechanical) with Honours from PEC Chandigarh and a postgraduate in management from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Rajiv Sodhi, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Rajiv Sodhi is the Chief Operating Officer for Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.

In his role, Rajiv drives end-to-end operations of Microsoft India. Before taking up this role, he was leading Microsoft’s partner business strategy for India He had also led the cloud and server business for Microsoft in India where he was responsible for driving the overall strategy and general management of the business.

Prior to Microsoft, Rajiv was the MD of GoDaddy India where he set up the Indian business. It was under his leadership that the company became the largest domain registrar in the country and the largest region for GoDaddy worldwide.

Rajiv has over 18 years of experience in building technology businesses in India and his focus has been on driving adoption of Internet and cloud based technologies amongst small and medium businesses. Rajiv has worked in diverse areas such as incubating SaaS based businesses, channel and distribution sales, product marketing, and technology evangelism.

An alumnus of the Harvard Business School, Rajiv completed his Engineering degree from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune University, specializing in Computer Science. He is based in Gurgaon, India.

In his spare time Rajiv enjoys astronomy, travelling and spending time with his family.

Rajiv Vasudevan, Founder and CEO, AyurVAID Hospitals

Rajiv Vasudevan, founder of AyurVAID, is responsible for providing leadership and operational excellence to all aspects of the business.

Rajiv has worked in a diverse set of leadership roles in the private and government sectors including operations as well as profit center management roles at Godrej and Motorola (Country Head, PSG, India & SAARC). He also served the Government of Kerala as CEO-Technopark, Director-Kerala State IT Mission, and later as Special Officer - Biotechnology.

Rajiv holds a B.Tech (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from NIT-Calicut and a MBA from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He qualified as an ‘assessor’ of the National Board for Accreditation for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), Quality Council of India in 2007, making him the first person from the Ayurveda sector to receive this accreditation. Further, Rajiv is a member of the technical committee constituted by the Government of India for formulation of NABH accreditation standards for Ayurveda hospitals.

He has served on the Board of Directors of State Bank of India, Kerala LHO, and is currently a member of the Board of Governors of his alma mater, NIT-Calicut.

Rajmohan Krishnan, Principal Founder & MD, Entrust Family Office

Rajmohan Krishnan is the Principal Founder & Managing Director at Entrust (https://www.entrustfamilyoffice.com/). With his deep understanding of the financial services industry and over two decades of advisory experience spanning Real Estate investments, Business Succession, Estate Planning and Social Enterprises Investments, Raj is one of the most renowned Family Office advisors in the country. Before founding Entrust, Raj was part of the team that founded Kotak Wealth Management and was responsible for the P&L in both North and South India. During this and previous stints, Mr. Raj mentored some extraordinarily successful wealth managers in the country.

Founded in 2013, Entrust is a boutique multi-family office dedicated to providing advisory on both investment and non-investment requirements for high-net-worth individuals, customized to the needs of each client. Some of their services include legacy and succession planning, wealth management, real
estate property management, accounting, taxation, concierge services, CFO services and more. The company has single family and multifamily office services as well as personal investment management.

Entrust has won multiple awards for its work, including the ‘Family Office of the Year’ at the AISL Edition II Summit 2024 (hosted by Grant Thornton Bharat and CEO Club India) and the ‘Best Family Office’ for their work with the Nilekani Family office at the Family Office Excellence Awards 2024 (hosted by India Sotheby’s International Realty, CNBC TV18 and Grant Thornton Bharat). Being one of the earliest SEBI registered Investment Advisory firms in India, Entrust is currently handling an AUM over INR 15,000 Cr and boasts of an impressive clientele of HNIs from Forbes top 100 families, including Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder of Infosys.

Rajmohan’s latest book, Wise Wealth, espouses his philosophy about creating wealth wisely in an ethical, and transparent manner - wealth that leaves behind a lasting legacy and a better world. It recounts personal experiences, practices and insights from 35 top business leaders of India and how
they’ve strived to transform their businesses into globally competitive, ethical, humane organizations. Some of the personalities featured in this book are household names like N.R. Narayana Murthy, Anand Mahindra, Uday Kotak and Ajay Piramal. The book chronicles Rajmohan’s interactions with these
luminaries and explores elements revolving around the topics of wealth, entrepreneurship, values and ethics, philanthropy and the need to create lasting change.